Tag: toward a leisure ethic

“Earning a Living” and the Dilemma of Unpaid Work On the Injustice of a World Without Unconditional Basic Income by D. JoAnne Swanson [Author’s note: It is my custom to use quotes for the phrase “earning a living” to call attention to its moral injustice.] All of us have basic needs: food, clothing, shelter, rest,

[Ed. Note: With the author’s permission, I’m re-publishing essays from his former site asobinomics.net, as they originally appeared in 2012. Here’s the third and final one in the series!] Some years ago, I was at the bookstore and came across Tim Ferriss’ best-selling book, The Four-Hour Work Week: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the

Patreon is a relative newcomer in the crowdfunding arena. It’s only been around for three years, and less than a year in its current design incarnation. It’s growing rapidly, however, and for excellent reason. Unlike other crowdfunding platforms that operate on a strictly per-project basis, Patreon permits creators to fund their creative work on a

I am interviewed in a new article in the UK-based quarterly Positive News alongside some illustrious company, including Tom Hodgkinson of The Idler and Helena Norberg-Hodge of the International Society for Ecology and Culture, who was a keynote speaker at The Economics of Happiness conference I recently attended in Portland, OR. Both are people whose

I’ve just finished reading Charles Eisenstein‘s inspiring new book, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible. It is every bit as brilliant as 2011’s Sacred Economics, and I recommend it just as highly. In lieu of a new blog post from me – I’m working on several, but none are ready yet –

What images and thoughts come to mind when you hear the word leisure? Many people automatically associate leisure with what people do in their ‘spare’ or ‘free’ time (i.e., time spent away from paid jobs), or with pursuits such as entertainment, vacations, or sports. I think we need to delve deeper when we think about

I often remind myself that unjobbing is a process, and not a destination. It’s not somewhere I end up. It’s more like a meandering trail through a dense forest, with switchbacks, elevation changes, and occasional backtracking when I get lost. Sometimes it leads into uncharted territory, and I find myself wondering what to do next.

[The following essay was originally published in 1999, as part of a short-lived monthly column in a webzine called Mr. Ridiculous, and it was later archived on whywork.org. Except for the short bio at the end, this is the original, unedited version. Although I still like the basic approach of this essay – focusing on

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“I am a conscientious objector to “earning a living.” I firmly believe that requiring people to “earn a living” through wage labor is a violation of the spirit and a form of structural violence, however widely condoned and culturally sanctioned it may be.”

– D. JoAnne Swanson, founder of The Anticareerist

“What if we stopped believing the calculated nonsense that each of us has to work eight or more hours a day simply to survive? Think what we could be and do!”

– Sonia Johnson, “Lilies of the Field”

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